Flagged into oblivion within 20mins. I was hoping people would choose the 'hide' option instead of flag but no they chose to kill a discussion for other people they don't want to part of anyway.
To look at this meaningfully, you need to take two things into account. First, front page slots are the scarcest resource HN has. Second, HN is a fragile place: the stories we most want here are weaker in many ways (e.g. less agitating) than more sensational material, and also quite a bit rarer. There need to be barriers to the latter or it would flood the site.
I should have been more clear. I meant that discussion is 'effectively' killed as anybody interested will not be able to find the story. I don't know how many flags it generated but one second it was on the front page, I refreshed and couldn't find it going back three pages.
My frustration stems from the fact that when the 'hide' function was introduced I had hoped people would use that more and only use flag for actual spam. If something gets up voted to the front page there are clearly quite a few people who want to discuss and there would probably be more but others won't find it once it's been flagged.
Maybe if a page reaches enough up votes within n minutes or reaches a certain rank on the front page within n minutes we can presume it's not spam and disable flagging for an hour. That way those who don't want to participate can ignore or use the new hide feature and those who do want to participate can find it.
Edit: I didn't know there was a knitting story on the front page when I wrote this!
That's probably because everyone knows how to vote, and so people who don't understand the guidelines vote off-topic stuff up. The people who flag stories tend to be more acquainted with the guidelines, and also always a step behind the upvoters.
Having more conversations like "We must get rid of Merkel and the refugees" followed by "What do you suggest, gas chambers?" would build up internet toxins that are already at uncomfortably high levels and bad for the body of the community.
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
Occam suggests you needn't look for "Anglo bias" as an explanation for why a story gets flagged when the thread includes "We must get rid of Merkel and the refugees" followed by "What do you suggest, gas chambers?"
(Not that there isn't inevitably going to be something like "anglo bias" on an English-language site. But FWIW the moderators here are acutely aware of, and grateful for, and interested in, the international aspects of the community—definitely including the German ones.)